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Saturday 26th February - Leek Town 1-2 Frickley Athletic

An excellent second half performance earned the Blues three crucial points as they battled back from a goal down at half time to beat Leek Town 2-1 with second half goals from Phil Lindley and substitute Andy Evans.

Gary Marrow was able to welcome back the fit again Matt Daly into the centre of the defence as he opted to play Daly Steve Kennedy and Lindley as three centre halves with Steve Robinson and Neil Ashley as right and left wingbacks respectively. Simon Collins came into the midfield with Andy Evans dropping to the substitutes bench.

On an extremely muddy surface both sides struggled to impose themselves during the early stages but the home side went close after 11 minutes when a well worked move down the right saw the ball crossed into the box where Paul Edwards turned and shot well wide. Leek went close again eight minutes later when Profitt latched onto a great through-ball down the left to cut inside Robinson but shot straight at Gary Ingham. Within a minute Frickley went close themselves for the first time when Nazha's right wing corner was headed just wide at the far post by Collins. The home side took the lead on the half hour when a free-kick from the right was headed in at the near post by Dave Whittaker. Just before half time Nazha had a chance to equalise when a free-kick was half cleared to lee Pugh who played an intelligent first time ball in to Nazha who turned well on the edge of the box before seeing his low shot half blocked by 'keeper Mark Cartwright with the ball squirming past him and sticking in the mud before it reached the line, enabling Alex Brown to clear.

The Blues started the second half positively and they went desperately close to equalising within two minutes of the restart when Robinson's long throw was flicked on to Nazha but his shot from inside the box was blocked. The loose ball fell to Collins who saw his close range shot touched against the right hand post by Cartwright, with the ball bouncing to safety. On 50 minutes Ingham kept the Blues in the game when he pulled off a great double save to deny both Dave McPherson and Paul Edwards and a minute later a right wing corner beat Ingham but Ashley cleared the ball off the line. On 56 minutes the Blues got their equaliser when Ashley's free-kick from the left was headed back across goal by Kennedy for Collins to tee up LINDLEY who blasted into the net from just inside the box. Steve Woolford then went close to giving the Blues the lead when he volleyed just over the bar following a Robinson long throw. Andy Evans replaced Nazha after 74 minutes and within 2 minutes Evans was in the thick of the action as he flicked on a free-kick from the right into the path of Collins whose header was palmed off the line by Cartwright at full stretch. minutes later Evans was involved again as he sent Chambers clear but his first time 25 yard shot was comfortably saved by Cartwright. With 7 minutes to go Chambers got away down the right and sent over a great cross which just evaded Collins at the near post but Carwtwright could only push the ball out into the path of EVANS who slammed the ball into the empty net from 6 yards. The Blues had to endure a nervous last few minutes, with the referee adding on almost 5 minutes of stoppage time before the Blues could celebrate a deserved win.